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Angela Hartnett previously worked at Cafe Murano’s location for Gordon Ramsay and is back as the boss (Picture: John Carey)

I don’t want to review my spinach and ricotta tortelli as much as compose a hymn to it.

When I finish the dish, I feel like shouting ‘encore’. I should probably calm down – it’s just a plate of pasta, after all. But there’s just something thrilling about the little parcels of ethereally light cheese and veg in their gossamer-thin wrappers anointed with a simple butter sauce. They’re smooth as silk and utterly delicious.

They’re one of the best things I’ve eaten in 2013. Not bad for an Italian restaurant that had been open just two weeks when I ate there, and even more impressive that it’s the second offering in as many months from Angela Hartnett, who launched the inestimable Merchants Tavern in October.

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Hartnett has history at this address, working for Gordon Ramsay and alongside Marcus Wareing back in the late 1990s when it was trading as Petrus. The building has been through a few incarnations since then but Cafe Murano feels like it has staying power.

They’ve made good use of the narrow space with a long white marble-topped bar set with a dozen stools perfect for lone diners, a beautiful wooden floor and chocolate-brown leather banquette seating.

You’ll have got the idea that this in no way resembles a café but while ‘Slightly Less Posh Version of Sister Restaurant Murano That’s Just Round the Corner’ would be a more accurate name, it doesn’t trip off the tongue as easily.

I’m told Hartnett was assisting with afternoon prep but she’s not in the kitchen when I dine. Step forward then former Murano head chef Sam Williams who is clearly every bit as talented as her boss. Everything I order from the regularly updated menu impresses.

I resist the cicchetti (small plates), which include very tempting truffle arancini, and start with an antipasti of incredibly tender octopus. This is braised in white wine and fish stock and served with chickpeas in a deeply flavoured San Marzano tomato sauce, enriched with the octopus cooking liquor. It’s finished with baby gem lettuce, parsley, sherry vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and basil pesto.

A main course lamb rump with cocoa beans is a fine piece of meat well cooked and dessert of hazelnut and chocolate tart is obscenely good. A thin crisp pastry shell encases a warm, light filling that’s so intensely flavoured it puts every other chocolate tart I’ve eaten into the shade.

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The front-of-house staff have a sense of purpose about them and lend a real energy to the room, perhaps born out of a confidence that what they are serving to their customers is truly good.

Like fellow former Ramsay employee Jason Atherton, Hartnett is shaping up as one of the city’s most reliable restaurateurs. Whatever you think of the gob from Glasgow, you can be grateful to him for that at least.

A meal for two, with wine, water and service costs about £110. 33 St James’s Street, SW1. www.cafemurano.co.uk